Plastic covers the open windows of     Memorial Hall in this portrait by     photographer Catharine Carter, who     documented the transformation of     the historic building as crews worked     on it. A selection of her photographs     of the project will go on display at     the Chapel Hill Museum on Thursday.      Photo by Catharine Carter

CHAPEL HILL -- All Catharine Carter really wanted to do was capture on film the Memorial Hall of her memories before its scheduled renovation changed it forever.

She wound up with a lot more.

Carter -- a Chapel Hill native, UNC graduate and professional photographer -- chronicled the transformation of the building from start to finish. She was there when crews removed the entire back of the structure. She was there when bulldozers rumbled over what used to be the front rows of seats, and when workers clambered like spiders through a massive web of scaffolding that rose from floor to ceiling. And she was there when the three-year process was done.

Memorial Hall reopens this week, and on Thursday, the Chapel Hill Museum will mark that opening with one of its own: an exhibition of Carter's photographs detailing the renovation.

"The Transformation of Memorial Hall: A Photographic Documentary by Catharine Carter," featuring 40 black-and-white images, will run through Oct. 22.

"I didn't really set out to photograph the whole process," said Carter, who specializes in portrait photography. "My dad, Joel Carter, was a music professor at UNC for over 30 years, and I spent a lot of my life in Memorial Hall. It's a fabulous space, but in recent years we haven't had a lot of great performers there, because the building had some limitations. It wasn't air-conditioned, and the backstage was so narrow that you had to walk very carefully back there or you'd ruffle the stage curtains.

"I was thrilled when the university decided to renovate it. I asked permission to photograph the interior just to sort of capture my memories before it was gone."

Permission granted. But once she was inside, and once the work began, she found herself fascinated by the process of transformation. So she kept going back. She became such a regular on the work site that she would just check in every Monday morning and grab her hard hat and get to work.

"Before I knew it, I had the whole project happening in front of me," she said. "It's not the kind of work I typically do. I'm a portrait photographer; I do moms and babies and families. But this was so epic and so compelling that I just had to keep going back."

Carter said audiences will be delighted with the new look, not to mention the air-conditioned breeze flowing from the vents. She was prepared to mourn the loss of the old space she knew so well. It turned out, she said, that she didn't have to.

"I thought I'd be sad," she said. "But they have retained the magnificence of the building wonderfully. They didn't lose the building that was; the scale and space and flavor of the old building are still there. They just helped it grow into something even better than it was. I think it's going to be a delight to come and perform here, and to come and see people perform."

That will happen for the first time this weekend. Tony Bennett and the North Carolina Symphony will take the stage Friday for what the university is calling "Prelude to an Opening." Saturday night, Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman with Leonard Slatkin and the North Carolina Symphony will perform.

For tickets, information and the complete season schedule call 843-3333 or see the Web site at www.unc.edu/performingarts/grandopening.

Carter said audiences will be thrilled with the new look and feel of Memorial Hall. She just hopes they also recognize what it took to make that happen.

"The building has been closed all these years, and people forget," she said. "When they walk back in, they're going to love it. They may not realize the huge struggle the building went through to get there. I was able to watch it happen. I hope the museum exhibit helps other people see how it happened, too."

The Chapel Hill Museum, at 523 East Franklin Street, is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays, and from 1 to 4 p.m. on Sundays.

For information, call 967-1400 or see the Web site at http://web.archive.org/web/20060221111640/http://www.chapelhillmuseum.org/.

Contact Dave Hart at 932-8744 or dhart@nando.com